Trending Topics Cybersecurity – January 2025

The Myra Cybersecurity Report 2025 reveals an alarming increase in cyberattacks. In 2024, the number of malicious requests rose by 25 percent overall. In Europe, DDoS attacks were primarily responsible for cyber incidents at companies and public authorities – this type of attack accounts for 41.1 percent of all reported cases, followed by ransomware attacks. Geopolitical conflicts and major events such as the Olympics created additional momentum, while successes by international law enforcement agencies in the fight against cybercriminals helped to ease the situation.

Delays in NIS-2 implementation

Meanwhile, the implementation of the NIS-2 directive and the KRITIS-Dachgesetz in Germany has suffered a major setback. Despite intensive negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, no agreement could be reached. This has led to a further delay in the implementation of important provisions for securing critical infrastructure. The implementation deadline of October 2024 will now be significantly exceeded, which could possibly result in infringement proceedings by the EU Commission.

Transatlantic data transfers at risk

The inauguration of the Trump administration in the US jeopardizes the legal certainty of transatlantic data transfers. The Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) have been asked to resign. The PCLOB is a key body for monitoring US data protection practices and plays a central role in the EU-US data protection framework. This jeopardizes the legal basis for data transfers to the US. After Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield, this is the third data protection agreement between the EU and the US to be in jeopardy. The consequences for European companies with US cloud providers would be dramatic.

The Top IT Security Topics in January

Allianz Risk Barometer 2025: Cyber incidents remain the greatest risk

According to the new report by the insurance experts at Allianz, cyber incidents are currently the greatest threat to organizations worldwide – followed by business interruptions and natural disasters. For the evaluation, more than 3,700 risk management experts from more than 100 countries provided their assessment of the most important corporate risks.

Cybersecurity Report 2025: Resilience test for the digital society

According to the new Myra Cybersecurity Report, the number of malicious requests in 2024 will have increased by 25 percent. Geopolitical conflicts and major social events such as the Olympic Games have significantly exacerbated the cyber threat situation as catalysts. Meanwhile, attacks on the supply chain and rising costs from cybercrime pose an increasing challenge.

Critical infrastructures report around 43 percent more cybersecurity incidents

In 2024, critical infrastructure operators reported a total of 769 cybersecurity incidents to the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). This represents an increase of around 43 percent compared to the 537 reports in 2023. However, not every report is necessarily related to a cyber attack, but may have other causes.

BaFin focus risks 2025: Cyber incidents with serious consequences

The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has published its focus risks for 2025. As in previous years, cyber incidents are among the six main risks. The increasing shift of geopolitical tensions into the digital space and the growing number of state-initiated cyber attacks on critical infrastructures, including the financial industry, pose a significant threat to financial stability, warns BaFin President Mark Branson.

Hessian Ministry of the Interior continues to see high cyber threat level

According to the Hessian Ministry of the Interior, municipalities, companies, public institutions and critical infrastructures are increasingly exposed to cyber attacks. The number of serious attacks is “alarmingly high”. Therefore, it is important to “strengthen cyber resilience”, emphasized Hesse's Minister of the Interior Roman Poseck. The Kommunale Cybersicherheit (AKC) action program is intended to contribute to this.

Security researcher warns: ChatGPT can carry out DDoS attacks

A security researcher has pointed out that OpenAI's AI tool ChatGPT can be misused for DDoS attacks. With just a single HTTP request, ChatGPT can be tricked into sending thousands of requests from different IP addresses to a target page at the same time, thereby overloading it. This is apparently due to a missing rate limit on OpenAI's side, which could be used to limit the number of requests to the same web server.

Waiting time for NIS-2 implementation and KRITIS umbrella law extended

Despite negotiations between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP after the end of the traffic light coalition, no agreement could be reached regarding the NIS-2 implementation and the KRITIS umbrella law. As a result, important provisions for securing digital aspects of critical infrastructures remain unclear, and the EU implementation deadline will be exceeded even longer, which could possibly lead to infringement proceedings by the EU Commission.

Legal certainty of transatlantic data transfers at risk

Under the new US administration of Donald Trump, the Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) were asked to resign. The PCLOB is a key body for monitoring US data protection practices and plays a central role in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Due to recent developments, the legal basis for data transfers to the US is at risk of being eliminated. If this happens, thousands of EU organizations would be forced to stop using US cloud providers.

Italy: 15-year-old penetrates IT systems of the Ministry of Education

In Italy, a student gained access to the IT systems of the Ministry of Education in Rome and changed school grades. He is also said to have succeeded in diverting ships in the Mediterranean by manipulating navigation software. Charges have been brought against the 15-year-old.

Wave of DDoS attacks paralyzes websites of banks and municipalities in Switzerland

While the global political and economic elite gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum, numerous Swiss banks, municipalities and organizations were subjected to a massive DDoS attack. Among others, the city of Lucerne, the Zürcher Kantonalbank and the Vaud Cantonal Bank, as well as the Swiss government's authentication service Agov, were affected. The pro-Russian group NoName057(16) is suspected of being behind the attacks.

Over 40 schools in Rhineland-Palatinate affected by cyber attack

In mid-January, a ransomware attack on an IT service provider encrypted the systems of a total of 45 schools in Rhineland-Palatinate. The group Lockbit claims to have tapped more than 3 TB of data during the attack. It is threatening to sell the data if no ransom is paid. According to the affected service provider, the attacked systems have been restored to the extent that the schools can work again.

DDoS attacks hit ministries and institutions in Italy

As a result of denial-of-service attacks, the websites of several Italian ministries and institutions were temporarily unavailable. The attacks, initiated by the pro-Russian group NoName057(16), were apparently a response to the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Rome. The attacks targeted, among others, websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Transportation, the Consob stock exchange supervisory authority, the Carabinieri, the Navy, the Air Force and several local transport companies.

Strengthening of US authorities: Biden orders expansion of cybersecurity measures

Before handing over to Donald Trump, US President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order to improve IT security for US federal agencies, which includes far-reaching measures such as end-to-end encryption, DNS encryption, BGP hardening and the use of AI for cybersecurity. The objective is to strengthen the security of government communication and identity management systems.

Operation Talent: Investigators take down world's largest cybercrime forums

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), in cooperation with international investigative authorities, has shut down the two largest cybercrime forums in the world, “nulled.to” and “cracked.io”, which together have around 10 million registered users. Seven searches were conducted in the course of the investigations, 17 servers and twelve domains were seized, and data was secured that will serve as the basis for further international investigations against criminal vendors and users of the platforms.

Myra app: new UI design for improved operation and functionality

The rollout of the new user interface (UI) for the Myra app has begun. With immediate effect, users will benefit from more intuitive operation and improved functionality in many areas thanks to the redesign.